From Civil Rights to Religion: Rabbi ALLEN SECHER'S remarkable journey Ep. 27

Today we’re excited to present an interview with Rabbi Allen Secher. Allen marked his 90th birthday earlier this year – he’s a rabbi, civil and human rights activist, radio host, television producer, actor, author and public speaker. He was ordained in the early 1960s, and while serving as rabbi in Massapequa, N.Y., he became one of the Freedom Riders during the civil rights movement. Rabbi Secher joined other clergy members, working with Dr. Martin Luther King, Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young and others to fight segregation in Albany, Georgia and St. Augustine, Florida. And in fact, the day after they demonstrated there, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In 1991, Rabbi Secher and his wife, Ina Albert, founded Makom Shalom, Chicago's first Jewish Renewal congregation, melding traditional and holistic paths (mysticism, meditation, and gender equality) toward spiritual intimacy. Rabbi Secher is deeply committed to supporting interfaith couples and families, and has officiated and co-officiated more than 2,000 weddings and other interfaith life cycle ceremonies. For many years, he and Father John Cusick served as advisors to The Jewish/Catholic Dialogue Group of Chicago, and in 1993, the organization also founded the Chicago Interfaith Family School, which educates children and their parents in the traditions of Judaism and Christianity. Today Allen continues to serve as one of the rabbis of the Family School. We’ll hear Allen in conversation with David Kovacs. In 2019, David and I produced and directed the documentary Leaps of Faiths, an exploration of interfaith marriage and families.

#religion #religionandfaith #rabbi #jewish #interfaith #interfaithminister #interfaithmarriage

LEAPS OF FAITHS documentary